BMW i8 Road Test Review

To drive it may look intimidating considering the cabin complimenting the outside with similar future like design, but it’s still quintessentially BMW and precisely German. So it should and would seem scary and make you leave skid marks in your trousers while it itself would leave some of its own on the tarmac. But it isn’t like that in anyway. In city traffic, apart from the people leaving their steering wheels and almost crashing into each other trying to get a picture of the car, there is nothing to be scared of. There is a pin drop silence when you start the car and it creeps up at low speeds into rearview mirrors like a little insect. You pin the throttle and it just flies off with the instant torque delivery from the electric motor with the loud noise and massive power from the little engine.

Driving in the city (the Greater Noida Expressway or some such unfettered roads), it’s extremely confortable, even though the ground clearance is only around 4 and a half inches. You have to be extremely careful not to damage the underbody of the car, if you take the car anywhere else in India. But because of that tiny gap between your bottom and the tarmac, the i8 just devours corners like an afternoon snack. Even with the traction control off, there is just so much confidence that you will not end up on a tree. There is just so much grip from the tyres getting the back out is relatively difficult I would say, if you want to have a bit of fun. You have to be at quite significant but a double digit speed to get the back end to slide out.

When the road opens up and you let it unleash, along with the electric power the i8 just climbs the speedo like no other car I have driven before. It’s just so smooth in climbing and even during shifts because the electric power just fills in the gaps left by the ICE you don’t feel any kind of lag for a single miniscule moment. But if you don’t have sufficient charge in the batteries, naturally it can’t power the car, so without that, even though the car can climb the speedo sufficiently quick, you do get a sense that it’s trying too hard. You do get a feeling that something is missing, that that missing element is that electric torque not exhilarating you like it should.

The combined power of the i8 with both power units is 326bhp and has a limited top speed of 250kmph. In electric mode alone the i8 can reach all the way up to 120kmph and an acceleration of 0-100 kmph in 4.4seconds.  When you drive the i8, you get a sense that it’s not a normal hybrid. The car doesn’t just look like it’s from the Jetsons, but it makes you feel like you’re actually in the future.  

The way the electric motor and the petrol engine move the car around is like no other hybrid ever. It’s a calm relaxed little electric car with a humble yet powerful engine which is just a different being all together.

BMW claims that on electric power and petrol combines, this car can go all the way to 440kms on a single tank and 35kms in electric power alone. While testing in controlled environments it can, on the real roads, it’s near impossible to achieve them. You would have to be extremely careful to even get close to getting those figures in real life situations.

Nonetheless, the i8 is a brilliant piece of machinery, made by people who know what they are doing with a clear vision on how to do it. The i8 is beautiful to look at, amazing to drive, and probably extremely satisfying to own. But unfortunately, you can’t buy it anymore because it’s all sold out.

So is the BMW i8 the future? Probably not the future itself but it is the gateway, the wormhole into the future. The technology in the i8 paves the way into the future, it’s what will inspire the future of making cars. Whether it is electric powered from batteries, electric powered from hydrogen, or the old greasy Internal Combustion engine, the i8 is the stepping stone for the future. In my view, the BMW i8 splits time in two.

So it’s exactly how it all started in the first place, with the discovery of electricity in the 17^th century, the 21^st century i8 is just a reboot of the technology. It’s sort of like how it all began in the first place. So what would Ben Franklin think if he ever saw what his discovery led humans to achieve? I’m sure he would have been extremely proud and electrically charged too!